Standing Still

My body is a cage
We take what we're given
Just because you've forgotten
That don't mean you're forgiven
I'm living in an age
That screams my name at night
But when I get to the doorway
There's no one in sight
— Arcade Fire, My Body Is A Cage

Media | Time | Soundtrack

#42 in the 100 themes challenge. Inspired by a picture of Tricia Helfer for Battlestar Galactica, because, after all, Layla is meant to look like her, in a way (Echoes even muses about the fact that she "kinda looks like Tricia Helfer" ).

Layla, from Was (NaNovel 2009), the odd, silent and deadly bodyguard to Louis Valdemar in Paris from 1985 to 1989. In the story, Valdemar uses her to perform all his dirty jobs, ranging from finding suitable sacrifices to slaughtering the Agents of the Anima Mundi who want to stop him. This is easy for him, since Layla is his creature, bound to obey his every whim—she was not and had never been human to start with (and there is a sort of twisted Pygmalion plot in all of this). However, there is much more than meets the eye to that character—who knows what her real thoughts might be, behind her water eyes and emotionless attitude?

^{Was is ©Yzabel Ginsberg (me)}

Lineart: [link]